


In Return

by helloshepard



Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: Gen, Spoilers, Symbiotic Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-23
Updated: 2013-03-23
Packaged: 2017-12-06 05:22:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/731897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helloshepard/pseuds/helloshepard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soundwave retrieves Laserbeak, not knowing what will happen next.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Return

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place during 'Darkmount, NV'. Obvious spoilers.

He felt it before they saw it. 

He felt scorching, light and heat hit his plating and it took all his self control not to step back. He couldn't move. Not now. He had failed. Laserbeak was injured. Not answering his hails. Probably dying then. Or dead. 

They had failed. 

What would come next...Soundwave had no idea. 

Unconsciously, his head snapped up when it was shown onscreen, a ball of light and fire that his covered optics could only stare at. 

The feed was cut off. 

Automatically, he registered his master's curses, logging them and everything else that was happening for further study. Not that Starscream cowering or Knock Out insistently pinging for a space bridge was anything new. He turned to the console, making the futile attempt to get Laserbeak back online remotely. Megatron would demand that before allowing a retrieval mission, if he would even consider one in the first place. 

"Soundwave." 

He turned to acknowledge the speaker, as was proper. The pain had been cut off when the feed went dead. Now all he had was himself. 

It was clear that Megatron was trying to contain himself, though for what reason Soundwave couldn't immediately ascertain. Everyone knew the full extent of the warlord's wrath, and while it was usually directed towards Starscream, Soundwave could not help but acknowledge that perhaps this time, it would be he who would be pinned and held trembling under the former gladiator's massive servos. 

It would be better like this. Laserbeak wouldn't have to see it, or feel it. Really, it had been his fault. He should have gone himself. His armor would have been a better protection --

"Retrieve your drone, and report back to the warship at once."

He nodded. 

The air was warm against his plating, a welcome change from the constant cold of the _Nemesis._ He could find no trace of Arcee or Jack, or where they had gone. Save for the remains of the gas station and the corpses of the Eradicons, one might never have thought that just a few minutes ago this had bee a battleground. Laserbeak wasn't at the location where he had lost contact either, but Soundwave wasn't letting himself worry. Yet. 

Scanning the area yet again, he paused, wishing hopelessly for a long moment that he had been allowed to kill the Autobot all those months ago, or that he had had the sense to simply step on the children every time he had encountered them. 

The faintest of distress signals jolted him out of his thoughts. Finally certain the area was clear, he headed towards the beacon. 

It was only the knowledge that Starscream was monitoring him that kept him from running and falling to his knees once he saw the deployer. 

Judging from Laserbeak's last known coordinates and these, the blast had either been bigger than the live feed had shown, or Jack and Arcee had tried to take the smaller Decepticon and stopped, or (most likely, Soundwave finally reasoned) Laserbeak had managed to move away. 

Slowly, he knelt, not caring if Starscream saw this. There were a thousand ways he could justify it. Thin digits accessed Laserbeak's spark chamber and Energon lines, checking for irreparable damage. Anything else, Knock Out could take care of. He _would_ take care of. 

A quiet chitter brought Soundwave out of his impromptu exam. Laserbeak nudged his hands, what happeneds, _I'm sorrys, we faileds, did he hurt yous_ trickling through the comm. line much, much slower than Soundwave would have preferred. 

_No. Rest. Information, debriefing is forthcoming._ Standing, Soundwave did his best to move without jolting the symbiont. He could have requested a groundbridge to his exact coordinates, but that meant returning to the warship immediately and rousing the deployer just to pick apart Laserbeak's processor for data Soundwave knew wasn't in there.

Laserbeak tried to resist, but by the time he reached the groundbridge, the smaller Decepticon's mind was quiet, and Laserbeak had fallen into a light recharge. Soundwave didn't dare to hope that Megatron might have forgotten that Laserbeak's processor "needed" to be examined for any trace of the Autobot and the human. 

Though he knew the _Nemesis_ was much more conducive to repairs than the Nevada desert, he could not help but want to go back outside as he walked past the whispering squads of Vehicons and Eradicons and entered the command center. 

Megatron and Starscream had clearly been in the middle of some kind of talk. The Seeker was cowed and Megatron was walking towards him, stopping only when Soundwave pinged a request for Knock Out. 

"Soundwave. Is Laserbeak still functional?" 

A nod. 

For a moment, it seemed as if all was normal. Then he spotted a glint in Megatron's optics and nearly cringed. 

"Good. Check Laserbeak's processor for any clue of where the Autobot might have run off to, would you? And then Knock Out *might* be back." 

He had been caught. His failure was being acknowledged right here, right now. He considered simply falsifying coordinates and sending Megatron after the red herring, so to speak, but...with his luck Megatron would send him after the Autobot, simply adding another failure to the list. 

Trying not to shake or allow his imagination to run away with him, Soundwave laid Laserbeak down on the table, along with a quiet, near-desperate request to _wake up, stay calm, examination for nonexistent data is commencing._

Laserbeak acknowledged with a tired ping, allowing Soundwave access to the records of the fight, most of them corrupted beyond repair. He uploaded the salvageable ones onto the warship's database for future in-depth study, not listening at all to Starscream's grating voice.

After all, he repairs to oversee, data to synthesize, and a war to survive.


End file.
